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source: Baltimore Jewish Examiner, September 9, 2009
"It's very easy to gain a following when you target people who are arriving from a country where they had nothing and you offer them the world," said Steve Becerra, co-chair of Sha'arei Teshuva, a Florida-based organization that researches cults and missionary groups such as Jews for Jesus.
Becerra has his finger on the pulse of what is happening throughout his own region, in the rest of America and even in Israel. He said as new immigrants settle in their new communities, they are being approached with "Christian love." However, the goal is not simply to help the needy. The aim is to convert them to Christianity.
In Florida, there is a large Latin American Jewish population. According to the most recent studies, some 24,000 Jews of Latin American origins reside in Miami-Dade County alone. According to Becerra, this population is "being targeted in alarming numbers."
Over 36 congregations offer Hebrew Christian or Messianic ministry to the Jews there. They entice them through financial and humanitarian aid, language classes and community-building. They forge relationships by learning their language or recruiting immigrants whom they have converted to reach out.
Most of the Latin American immigrants know they are Jewish, Becerra explained. However, they are not knowledgeable about what that means.
"When they are told that Yeshua HaMashiach [Jesus Christ] is the Messiah, when Christian concepts are given Hebrew names and repackaged as 'biblical Judaism,' ... it impresses very strongly upon them," he said.
Becerra has made it his mission to infiltrate these Messianic centers, to get on their mailing lists and find ways to sabotage their work. He knows it is the only choice.
"I see the way it tears apart families," he said, noting it also harms true interfaith dialogue.
"It is a call for awareness I am making," he said. "It doesn't matter if you are a secular Israeli or a chasid who grew up in Monsey - be aware of the problem and talk to your community."
Russian Roulette
Rabbi Paysach Diskind has devoted his life to keeping Russian immigrants Jewish. The director of Achim, based in Baltimore, since 1989 he has served as "professional friend" to Baltimore's 15-20,000 Russian Jewish immigrants. He said he "tries to show them what a Jew is."
Russian booksDiskind said Russians are a primary target for Hebrew Christians because, like those Jews from Latin America, Russians have little understanding of Jewish traditions. However, Russians are very connected to Judaism in the sense of identification.
"These are people with strong Jewish identities who know nothing. Usually knowledge and identity make the same mark on a graph. For Russians that rule does not count. Their Jewish identity is generated not from knowledge or even Jewish experiences, but from anti-Semitism," Diskind explained.
Because of there is interest in learning more about Judaism, the Russians - if not welcomed, embraced and educated by mainstream Jewish society - will fall easily into the missionaries' hands.
"Just the other day an older Russian woman asked me, 'What is the Messiah going to be - God or a man?' There is no question that thought came from some interaction with a messianic," Diskind said.
Even in Israel
The messianic outreach to Russian Jews is even more pronounced in Israel, where a huge population was brought over 20 years ago and continues to trickle in. In fact, next month, a Christian Russian TV station will begin broadcasting in Israel. The heads of the station, according to an article published by Israel National News, hope to spread their message to over one million new-immigrant homes in Israel.
According to the article, the station, named "Rodnoy" or "homeland," will offer Christian adult and children's programming. The fear is that Russian Jews, with little or no knowledge of their Jewish heritage following decades of Soviet oppression, will easily be convinced to believe in Jesus.
Several years ago, an article by this reporter appeared on the cover of the Jewish Observer. In that piece, Rabbi Ze'ev Shtigletz of Lev L'Achim pointed out that missionaries know the Jewish state is so starved for money and political support it is willing to turn a blind eye to the open proselytizing of Messianic Jews ... especially of poor immigrants.
The effect of this outreach work is astounding. The following excerpt from a letter sent to the American Jewish Committee speaks for itself:
Bridges for peace"[My family and I] moved from Kiev six years ago. ... Sometime after our arrival, we were visited by some nice English-speaking representatives of Bridges for peace, [a Christian aid group in Israel.] They offered to help us financially. They started sending us food parcels. ... The packages would contain a lot of Russian-language messianic literature about Christianity. This literature maintained that Jesus was the Jewish Messiah..."
The letter goes on to explain that he and his family became involved with and influenced by these Christians, visiting their holy sites on Bridges for Peace-sponsored trips that took place on Shabbat.
The immigrant concludes: "This situation is very humiliating for me. It is as if I was bought off by these gifts to accept the Christian faith."
There are many more letters of this nature on file, with this reporter, at the Knesset and the AJC.
Said Becerra: "They are achieving in one way what [Adolph] Hitler tried to do with another. They are killing Jewish souls."
(Steve Becerra pictured above by Western Wall)
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